Innovative Behavior as a Moderator of Growth Intentions

Although several studies suggest that both growth intentions and innovative behavior have positive effects on firm growth, little is known about how innovative behavior interacts with the intentions and the growth. This study examines its role in this relationship. Longitudinal data composed of 232 observations show that the innovative behavior itself has a positive effect on firm growth. However, innovative behavior negatively moderates the effect of growth intentions on growth. Of the analyzed dimensions of such behavior, the launching of new products and services, in particular, impedes the chances of realizing the growth intentions. In conclusion, the identified moderating effect of innovative behavior gives a new insight into existing knowledge on the effect of growth intentions on firm growth.     

Harm-advocating online content and subjective well-being: a cross-national study of new risks faced by youth

Harm-advocating online content includes pro-eating disorder, pro-self-harm, pro-suicide, and the positive portrayal of the deaths of real people (snuff or death sites). This material is often user-generated and easily accessible for an average online user, therefore offering a potential source of risk for many Internet users. This cross-sectional study examined the association between exposure to harm-advocating online content and users’ subjective well-being (SWB) among American (n = 1032) and Finnish (n = 555) young people aged 15–30. Exposure to different types of online harm-advocating content was prevalent in both countries. Lower SWB was associated with exposure to this material even when controlling for social networking site (SNS) activity and online and offline victimization. In the US sample, seeing death sites was not associated with SWB, but seeing other harm-advocating sites was. In both countries, those with high SNS activity were more likely to be exposed to online harm-advocating material. These results from two advanced information societies underline the importance of recognizing the existence of harmful online communities. These communities are grounded on social interaction that might involve risks for the well-being of adolescents and young adults.     

The ecological transparency of the information society

A de-linking of pollution from economic growth and de-materialisation can probably be seen as the most important single characteristic of sustainable development. With regard to this, ecological transparency means understanding all human activities, processes and patterns that have an impact on the potential for sustainable development. Closely linked with this is the idea that the ecological footprint of the information society should be concerned with the environmental implications of its generations, applications and the disposability of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper aims at developing scenarios, and a set of criteria, plus indicators as tools for identifying various environmental impacts inherent in the information society. Furthermore, it aims for the successful unification of the positive factors of the information society with ecologically sustainable development. It is concluded that policy plans for the information society would benefit from the enhanced level of ecological transparency the information society can provide, as presented via the indicators mentioned later in the text. Further, it is suggested that prerequisites should be created for evaluating the implications of the information society and for the application of related information society technologies. Such an approach could be labelled an Information Society Assessment.     

The political economy of delayed reform

Abstract

The role of economic policy in Finland's depression of the 1990s is analyzed with a simple model of an open economy, and the conditions for a successful financial reform derived: Let the system adjust after the removal of interest rate ceilings, and the domestic interest rate then be aligned with foreign rates before liberalizing international capital flows. In Finland, the financial system was liberalized simultaneously with international capital movements, with the domestic shadow interest rate initially considerably higher than the international market rates. A capital inflow the size of the monetary base followed, leading to the ‘crazy years’ of 1987–89. With a large current account deficit, the Bank of Finland tightened money sharply, causing a banking crisis practically wiping out the savings bank sector. The GDP declined by 13%. Several lesser policy measures aggravated the crisis.     

The action-oriented approach and case study method in management studies

Although the case study method has become increasingly popular in management studies, it does not always seem to be properly understood: researchers have not fully clarified for themselves the scientific approach they are using, although it greatly controls the realization of a study. This article focuses on action-oriented or hermeneutic case studies. The subjectivist nature of this approach and its effect on the conduct of a case study are stressed, in order to distinguish it from its methodological antithesis, the nomothetical case study. Certain hierarchical relations between the relevant subjectivist social science assumptions are suggested as a further way of helping researchers to internalize the essentially actorcentric nature of action-oriented (hermeneutic) case studies.     

Elasticities of derived demand under different objectives of the firm

Conclusions We have reconciled and generalized earlier comparisons of input demand elasticities under different objective functions of the firm. In general little can be said of the relative magnitudes of the elasticities under different objectives, since different goals usually imply different levels of production and input demand. With some simplifying assumptions about the technology we can conclude that a profit-constrained, utility-maximizing firm tends to have higher input demand elasticities than a profit-maximizing firm facing the same cost and demand functions. This tendency is reinforced by a high profit requirement, decreasing returns to scale and slowly falling demand elasticity for the output. The results may help to explain differences in the stability of employment between industries,. Scherer [1980, pp. 365–67] reports that some studies have found an inverse relation between market concentration and stability of employment, which is contrary to the expected result. One may argue that in concentrated industries the firms are likely to have organizational slack or to face an inelastic product demand curve. Hence demand for factors of production should be less elastic than in more competitive industries. We have shown, however, that deviations from profit maximization may lead to higher input demand elasticities. Since non-profit-maximizing goals are likely to be more common in concentrated industries, the observed instability of employment may be partly due to the high elasticity of derived demand. Although the type of alternative goals studied in this paper may not be realistic in practice, the analysis shows nevertheless that goals of the firm may be one factor in explaining differences in the stability of employment.     

Conducting Dyadic Multiple Issue Negotiation Experiments: Methodological Recommendations

We take a critical, yet constructive look at the literature that focuses on multiple issue negotiation experiments. Our purpose is to offer suggestions for improvement when conducting such experiments. We focus on experiments, which are conducted using an externally imposed value point structure for the negotiators across issues together with background context information. Negotiator performance in such experiments is generally poor in the sense that Pareto inferior settlements are typically generated. A possible explanation is that negotiators sometimes follow the externally imposed value points and sometimes their own values pertaining to the context. Hence we conclude that it would be better if multiple issue negotiation experiments would not be based on an apriori given value point structure - unless we have compelling reasons for it - particularly if no agents are used. The common argument against doing this is that we cannot then identify Pareto optimal or Pareto preferred settlements for the subjects. Recent research integrating the fields of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) together with negotiation analysis, however, provides a possible solution to this problem. An experiment conducted by the authors is used to illustrate our methodological recommendations.     

Monetary policy under flexible exchange rates: When is expansion contractionary?

This paper studies whether the observed instability in the effects of monetary policy could be due to the way in which the behavior functions have been specified in an open economy context. Accordingly, special emphasis is on the specification of the behavior functions to correspond to their foundations in closedeconomy macrotheory. The demand for real money balances, in terms of the expenditure basket of goods, is specified as a function of income in terms of the same basket. Imports are specified as a function of expenditures, being functionally part of expenditures. The supply of labor is specified as a function of the expenditure price.It is shown that the exchange rate overshoots but output declines, to eventually rise above its original level in response to monetary expansion in the real wage model. In the money wage model, output and the exchange rate overshoot their steady-state levels if the expansion eventually leads to an increase in nominal wealth. If it leads to a decrease, both variables undershoot. However, if interest payments on foreign securities are not small relative to the trade balance, many of the effects are reversed. Thus the overshooting result is far from robust even in a standard model with an exogenous money supply.     

Conjectural variations,risk aversion and price-cost margins

Summary We have shown that introduction of random conjectural variations and risk aversion into an oligopoly model leads to results in line with those derived earlier for competitive and monopolistic firms. In particular, a risk-averse firm has smaller output and higher expected price-cost margin than a risk-neutral firm. For a specific form of conjectural variations we have shown that under risk aversion the firm-level expected price-cost margins depend on the market structure, measured in terms of the Herfindahl index of the rest of the firms in the industry, as well as on the expected degree of correlation between the competitors' reactions.